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WHY IS IT THAT SO MUCH OF WHAT OUR MINDS DO IS NON-CONSCIOUS?
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR OUR CONCEPT OF MIND?
WHY IS OUR NON-CONSCIOUS MIND SO POWERFUL?
These were some of the questions hotly debated and discussed
by four eminent Australian scientists and philosophers with His
Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, on Friday 24th May
in Canberra.
The following text is from the event's program: (view
program: pdf format, approximately 6.1 MB)
One of the interesting, and baffling, features of contemporary
cognitive science is its demonstration of the extent to which
so much of what we consider 'mentality' is not conscious. It is
now a commonplace that the vast majority of cognitive processing
goes on below the threshold of consciousness. That is, it is not
available to the perceiving or thinking 'I'.
An important emerging area of mind science is reseach into perception
and learning that takes place below the threshold of awareness.
Studes of 'blindsight' patients alerted scientists to the possibility
of perception without conscious awareness. Subliminal advertising
tries to take advantage of this. A growing body of evidence, including
studies of infants, now indicates that human beings are capable
not only of non-consious perception but also, potentially, of
a wide range of non-concious learning. This suggests that we inhabit
a much richer world, cognitively speaking, than we realise.
One of the foundational principals of mindfulness training in
all Buddhist traditions is that human beings generally have no
control over their minds or the content of their thought. For
the most part, we are slaves of habit, of habitual patterns of
thinking. A corollary of this principle is that our mental states
have significant effects on the state of our physical body and
vice versa. Tibetan Buddhism, in particular, has developed a powerful
body of meditative techniques to bring the mind under conscious
control so that it can be directed in the service of helping others.
All of these techniques aim at accessing deeper levels of awareness.
Some of these techniques (for example gTum-mo) also involve the
consicous modulation, albeit indirectly, of certain bodily parameters
normally considered beyond cognitive control. The theory of mindfulness
meditation holds that through the special techniques of this practice
we can gain direct conscious access to types of mental processing
that normally operate below the level of conscious awareness.
Given the importance for these practices in Tibetan Buddhism,
this is a disucssion to which the Dalia Lama could potentially
make a significant contribution.
It would appear that this is an area in which Eastern and Western
approaches could genuinely inform one another in a way that might
lead to deeper understanding on both sides. It might even provide
indications for further study. Research into human creativity
is one area in which this might be so. Human creativity is a profoundly
mysterious phenomenon, in so far as its processes appear to take
place not only below the threshold of awareness but also access
seemingly wide divergent but nevertheless linked areas of memory,
emotion and symbol.
Reconciliation between both approaches to the mind is now much
more possible due to advances in technologies for studying mental
activity in the brain (for example, transcranial magnetic stimulation
or TMS). Scientists now realise that we don't see the world as
it actually is but rather in terms of what we already know of
the world. This has been a tenet of Buddhist thinking for nearly
1400 years (see, for example, Dharmakirti's Pramanavarttika).
Techniques such as TMS are allowing scientists to demonstrate
this empirically.
It is hoped that the forum will provide an opportunity for a
genuine and fruitful exchange of ideas and insights by a panel
of leading figures from the fields of science and philosophy.
The panelists:
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama
Professor Maxwell Bennett (Professor of Neurobiology and University
of Sydney Chair)
Professor Paul Davies (Adjunct Professor of Natural Philosophy
in the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University)
Professor Frank Jackson (Institute for Advanced Studies, The
Australian National University)
Professor Jack Pettigrew (Professor of Physiology and director,
Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, University of Queensland)
Keynote address Professor Allan Snyder
(Director, Centre for the Mind,
Australian National University/University of Sydney)
Moderator
Mr Robyn Williams (ABC)
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